Code refactoring can be performed by a developer to reorganize the structure of code without breaking the behavior. For instance, code refactoring may be supported by an application development environment such as an integrated development environment (IDE) for use in projects involving procedural logic or other imperative coding paradigms.
User interface (UI) design for an application under development is increasingly visually-oriented. For instance, an application development environment can feature a design view that depicts visual elements representing a runtime appearance of elements of the UI. The visual elements may or may not exactly appear as they will at runtime, but allow a developer to assemble and arrange UI elements such as controls, containers, navigators, skins, effects, and the like. At the same time, the application development environment can maintain corresponding source code defining the visual elements so that when the source code is compiled or interpreted the resulting application provides the UI as arranged in the design view. Often, the source code is generated by the application development environment using a declarative language, such as XML, MXML, HTML, or FXG/MXML.